ENGLISH PROSE

A SERIES OF RELATED ESSAYS FOR THE DISCUSSION AND PRACTICEOF THE ART OF WRITING

SELECTED AND EDITED

BY

FREDERICK WILLIAM ROE, PH.D.

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

AND

GEORGE ROY ELLIOTT, PH.D.

OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE

1913

PREFACE

The selections in the present volume, designed primarily for thediscussion and practice in college classes of the art of composition,have been arranged under a scheme which the editors believe to be new.There are nine related groups. Each successive group represents adifferent phase of life, beginning with character and personality, andconcluding with art and literature. The whole together, as the table ofcontents will show, thus presents a body of ideas that includespractically all the great departments of human thought and interest.

It is evident that certain ideals of teaching composition underlie thescheme. The editors believe heartily with Pater that "the chief stimulusof good style is to possess a full, rich, complex matter to grapplewith". Instruction in writing, it is to be feared, too often neglectsthis sound doctrine and places an emphasis upon formal matters thatseems disproportionate, especially when form is made to appear as athing apart. Form and content go together and one must not suffer at theexpense of the other. But a sustained interest in the ways and means ofcorrect expression is aroused only when the student feels that he hassomething to express. Instructors often contend indeed that the ideas ofundergraduates are far to seek, and that most of the time in theclass-room is therefore best spent upon formal exercises and drill. Theeditors do not share this view. They believe that there is no class ofpeople more responsive to new ideas and impressions than collegestudents, and none more eager, when normally stimulated, to expressthemselves in writing. They have therefore aimed to present a series ofrelated selections that would arouse thought and provoke oral discussionin the class-room, as well as furnish suitable models of style. In mostcases the pieces are too long to be adequately handled in one classhour. A live topic may well be discussed for several hours, until itsvarious sides have been examined and students are awakened to the manyquestions at issue. The editors have aimed, also, to supply selectionsso rich and vital in content that instructors themselves will feelchallenged to add to the class discussion from their own knowledge andexperience, and so turn a stream of fresh ideas upon "stock notions".Thus English composition, which in many courses in our largerinstitutions is now almost the only non-special study, can be made adirect means of liberalization in the meaning and art of life, as wellas an instrument for correct and effective writing.

The present volume therefore differs from others in the same field. Manyrecent collections contain pieces too short and unrelated to satisfy theideals suggested above—ideals which, the editors feel sure, are held byan increasing number of teachers. And older and newer collections alikehave been constructed primarily with the purpose of illustrating theconventional categories,—description, narration, exposition. Teachersof composition everywhere are becoming distrustful of an arrangementwhich is frankly at variance with the actual practice of writing, andare of the opinion that it is b

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